NIC-10 Girls Basketball: Harlem counts on subs to step up

MACHESNEY PARK — All five starters are gone from Harlem’s best girls basketball team in nine years, but several veterans remain.

The Huskies substituted in waves last year, using 10 players regularly in going 20-6 (13-3) and winning their first regional title in nine years. Star subs Theresa Heitz, McKaela Schmelzer and Tijana Spremo, among others, will now be counted on to be just as strong as starters.

“The people who are coming back had quality minutes,” coach Luanna Kish said, “they just didn’t have that starting role.”

Kish isn’t sure if Harlem will continue to sub as heavily and as frequently as a hockey team. It will depend on if this year’s reserves can play as well as last year’s did.

“You see as each game goes and find out what you have,” Kish said. “It would be great for it to be that way again, but each game is going to define what’s going to go this year.”

Harlem does not have a big center, but four of the top six returning Huskies are 5-foot-9 or 5-10.

“We have a lot of 5-9ers in the middle that are guards/forwards,” Kish said. “We don’t have that power move down low, but we can still handle the ball on the wing. Teams with bigger forwards are goiing to have to guard our forwards, who are more of a guard than a post.

“We have to find new leaders with girls who have new roles to play. We still have the same goals this year, but how we get there is going to have to be different.”